Featured "Pentagon" Sending 1300 Combat Troops Back To Iraq

Let's give Obama credit for ending the Bush war in Iraq please.

 

ABOARD USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CNN) --From the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, President Bush announced in a nationally televised address that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

"In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment," Bush told the Navy men and women aboard the warship Thursday. (Transcript)

Bush also made a direct connection between the war in Iraq and the continuing war on terrorism.

"The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September 11, 2001, and still goes on," Bush said. He then highlighted successes in Afghanistan, citing the construction of roads, hospitals and schools.

But the focus of the speech returned sharply to the connection between Iraq and terrorism.

"The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror," he said. "We have removed an ally of al Qaeda and cut off a source of terrorist funding."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/05/01/sprj.irq.main/

That last bit sounded pretty good. To bad it was another neocon lie.

Same as, "Obama ended the war in Iraq".

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/122074.pdf

 

I couldn't find what their mission will be. A Brigade Combat Team (BCT) is made up of mostly non combat troops, usually. A BCT is meant to be a self sustaining force, a "miniature army". So, they'll have a couple companies of combat troops, the an HQ company, a Forward Supply Company (FSC), and medics, mechanics, etc.



So, obviously I am not defending Obama, as I am not sure if this is a good move or not. We'll see.



For my part, if I were president and said, "no boots on ground", then had to put boots on ground, I would. It might be a good decision. Just because he said we weren't going to, and now we are does not make him a bad person (there's plenty elsewhere that does). Circumstances change.

 

Btw, when I said "companies" earlier, I meant Battalions. It looks like the 3BCT, 82nd has two infantry bats, a cav bat, special troops bat (engineers), support bat, and a FA bat.

http://www.bragg.army.mil/82nd/3bct/Pages/3rdbctunits.aspx

 

Really don't want to send troops back in. It will be interesting to see the same people who cried that he pulled out of Iraq too early are all of a sudden taking exception to the decision to send troops in.

 

The Pentagon is not the media.

 

The Pentagon "says" the media "reports".

Often times with no question or investigation by the "media".

And then. Sometimes the Pentagon is the media.

Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/us/20generals.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
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He can always claim he didn't know anything about it til he saw it on the news and fire another general. :smilewinkgrin:

 

Glorified briefings.These are all pick and choose what details to disseminate briefings. But I guess media nonetheless.

 

Are army batallions so small that all the forces you named could amount to just 1300 troops?

 

They vary in size from a few hundred to several thousand. My old Battalion in Hawaii had around 400 soldiers, but my company alone had 196.

 

A BCT probably has close to 1,300 troops plus enablers attached. I'm trying to imagine what only one BCT is supposed to accomplish. I have a hard time believing they are going to start assigning battle space again. They are going to Baghdad so I wonder if this is a plus up to embassy security. Maybe a BCT sized quick reaction force? I wonder what their reach is supposed to be?

 

With brilliant military strategy and Nobel prize at that.